French Blue

 As we work our way through the house doing paint therapy, the living room has become a controversial color. I say that it's a grey/green (and I spent lots of time picking the exact color that I wanted so I firmly believe that I'm RIGHT!).  Steve says it's blue.  The kids say it's green.  My mom says it's French Blue.  It's called Verdigris and apparently it changes colors throughout the day with the lighting.

(This is the old terra cotta color, by the way.)

Here's a little more "french blue" for French Inspiration over at French Cupboard...


 Come on over and visit the other gals who are participating in Voila today!

White Wednesday Therapy


 Thanks so much for all your kind words and thoughts.  It is great therapy having others to chat with.  Of course, it's also great therapy to paint the child's room and find new vintage items to accessorize with! Having my oldest child move out has turned into a decorating extravaganza.  We got his room painted and realized how shabby the hall and stairwell looked so, of course, those had to be painted too.  The living room is at the bottom of the landing so we had to spruce that room up a bit.  And the sleeping porch studio is just around the corner from the living room...  
Mr. Blessing has the afternoon off today.  Maybe we can finally tackle the kitchen! 

I'm sharing some photos of the studio over at French Cupboard today if you'd like a peek.

Kicking & Screaming

 I was a good mom last week.
Not that I don't make the effort everyday but last week there was a stand-out mom moment... 
 
One of my four sweet baba's officially moved out of the house last week.  
He's 20 and ready to be more independent (I think he's been saying something along those lines since he was 14 but now Mr. Blessing and I agree with him). I'm ok about him moving out (Mostly ok).  So I was a good mom while he packed and loaded up the remains of his childhood.  I didn't hang onto his leg and try to drag him back in the house. I didn't make him stop to pose for a memorializing picture while he was holding his mattress (I took pictures out the back window )...

 I didn't tell him to pull up his pants while he was carrying that basement-worthy sofa!

I did not pull out the baby pictures that night after he left.   
(WHEN did all that facial hair happen?  No, despite what my children might say, it did not happen while I was blogging!)
And I did not sit on the floor of his empty bedroom wishing for a few more years.

Ok, I sat on the floor...  And wished for a few more years.  But then I did what good moms all over blogland do - I painted the room and started decorating!

Love Looks Good On You

Love your family. Love your friends. Love your mate. Love God.
No matter who the love is directed to, it alters us.  Love brings out beautiful things in us because it puts others first.  This weekend may you be clothed in life-altering, beautiful love.
.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 
(1 John 3:1)

French Inspiration

 I had planned on working on my sleeping porch studio this week but instead I have landed myself on the sofa with a stomach bug (It hit quite suddenly but I'm better today than yesterday and yesterday was better than the day before but it's kinda slow going).  So I've had some time to draw inspiration from old magazines.  I love the French tone of this photo.
 It reminded me that I had some old pottery in similar colors as the magazine picture.  And Voila! I get to participate in French Cupboard's French Inspiration right from the sofa. 

If you would like to share some of your French Inspiration, feel free to join in!

Empty-Bucket Days & Flood-Filled Nights

I don't usually like to blog about things that I'm selling.  I just feel odd about it.  But for the sake of showing how my silly creative process works, I thought I'd share a couple new braclets that I worked on.  I don't tpically do jewelry (Have I mentioned that I'm somewhat bad with the words "new" and "change"?) but this was one of those rare inspired moments.  I just had to give it a whirl. 

Do you have days where there are floods of ideas and then days that you can't find a drop of inspiration in the bucket?  Normally, I have empty-bucket days and flood-filled nights.  Or at least they seem like great ideas in the middle of the night but by sunrise that inspired project usually fades (Mr. Blessing loves it when I wake him upat 1:30 a.m. to run a new idea by him - not).  So this was an actual, wide-awake, middle of the day idea.   

And when that rare moment strikes, my compulsive side takes over - I feel like I have to drop everything and work swiftly lest the idea takes wings and is gone forever.  Of course, I didn't have the supplies laying around that I needed so I took to the streets to find what I had pictured in my mind.  Four stores later, a day light project was born.  And although I don't do jewelry, I figure if the rapper Vanilla Ice can have a show on

the DIY Network (seriously, he was on Rachel Ray today - WHAT has come over the world), I should definitely try new things!

Now I have some ideas about how I want to change our downstairs sleeping porch.  Paint treatments, lots of old doors, burlap, ruffles, a whole load of lace and old ceiling tins.  Mr. Blessing isn't sure about this idea of mine but I told him that I'm pretty sure it'll turn out ok because I thunk it up during the day! 

Mademoiselle

Do you include a gift with purchase when someone buys from your website?
My gift stash was running low so this week I've been working on some inexpensive handmade items.  I certainly don't consider myself a paper artist (It really is a craft that requires patience and talent) but I have lots of photos from beautiful boutiques and from traveling to amazing flea markets.  So I thought I'd use some of those pictures to make cards.

 The lovely mademoiselles were styled by Rebecca at Vintage Living.  And the Gypsy Soul sign was taken at the Junk Gypsy tent at the Texas Antique Shows. 

Come on over to French Cupboard and see what the other talented mademoiselles made this week!

Linking up today with
Debra @ Common Ground

French FLOUR girl

About six months ago Mr. Blessing made a chicken wire mini dressform for me.  It was a practice piece for him.  He was trying to find the materials that would be just right for an idea that he had in mind.  I LOVE that he loves this junking business.  I also love that I get to use the pieces that he discards  =)

The other night while he was working at one of his "real" jobs, I pulled out the old chicken wire girl and made a batch of homemade paste with flour and water.  As I sat watching tv and talking with the kids, we ripped pages from a vintage French Literature textbook, dipped them in the paste and had a night of French paperie couture.
  A lace netting collar...  A cheesecloth rosette...

 A paper pocket...

Flared cuffs...

And Voila! 
If you would like to meet our French FLOUR girl in person, she'll be at the Spring Na-Da sale.

Come on over today to French Cupboard and visit the other Voila! participants of our French Inspiration party this week.
Big thank-you hugs to Jill (Gypsy Brocante) for hostessing the event for us.
Linked today with:
http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/
Rebecca for Vintage Living

White Wednesday

 
 Happy White Wednesday!

Just a little sneak peek at my French Inspiration project this week!
Hope you'll link up with us tomorrow over at French Cupboard and show off something French from your life, home, projects...

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